The Missing
Mar 6, 2009
The Missing
Author: Tim Gautreaux
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Publication Date: March 6, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-307-27015-3
A fantastic book! I was hooked from the first page. Very well written in straightforward story telling style. My favorite - you can just absorb into the story and forget all else while reading.
This is the tale of Sam Simoneaux (great name!) at the end of WWI and after.
The book starts with a short back history of his life - his entire family was murdered in a revenge killing when he was a baby. He survived by being thrown into a cold stove and hidden.
He was taken in by an Aunt and Uncle and raised with them until he joined the war. He landed in France as the people were celebrating in the streets that the war had just ended. He never had to fire his weapon.
He lives in New Orleans with his wife in a very pleasant life. Not rich, but they get by with his job as a Floorwalker in a nice department store.
His nickname was Lucky, and for the majority of his life he was just that.
This all ends when he forgets a basic rule in the department store.... if a child is reported missing, lock down the store. He does not follow the rule, and a kidnapping of a lovely little 3 year old girl occurs. He loses his job and by odd circumstance, finds himself working on the same riverboat the child's parents are on. He considers it a personal quest to find the child and save himself - for if he saves the child he can have his nice job back at the department store.
Then the story really gets going. Along the way there are many self realizations, twist and turns, dangerous situations and life changing decisions to be made. It's a big, hearty book that will keep you interested the whole way through.
Line I loved from the book - "At the edge of town he went into a swaybacked store to ask where Ferry Road was, and the proprietor took ten minutes to make sure Sam wasn't a revenuer, bounty hunter, deputy, or Northerner before he answered."
